To the Future in High School
by goldenpuon
Summary: Our ice age team finds themselves in the future as teens. The question is can they get back? Will they ever fit in? I updated chapter 5 though it's still not finished.
1. The Blue Light

All characters from the Ice Age series are property of 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. All other characters belong to me.

To the Future in High School

It was the night after the meltdown. The odd herd had just settled down under some trees for shelter for the night when Diego sensed something was up. He cocked his ears. Everyone else was asleep. An eerie bluish light came closer and then farther from their shelter. A low growl rose in his throat. Eventually the glow faded and he lay awake, watching.

Meanwhile, Scrat was in a similar ordeal. A bluish light came nearby. He held his nut, hugging it. Suddenly, a bang echoed in the sky. Diego and Scrat both looked up at their separate locations.

"Wake up!" yelled Diego to the rest of the herd. However, the boom had already woken them. Manny and Ellie exchanged glances.

"What was that?" said a scared Sid as it came again.

"I saw a light coming towards us. Then it faded." explained Diego." Maybe we should move somewhere else." Everyone agreed and got up even though it was the middle of the night. Scrat also took this time to flee, with his acorn of course.

At the same time, the cause of their trouble, a Neanderthal ritual was going on. In the dance of the flames the tribe was celebrating for the flood's retreat. A young Neanderthal boy took out his people's cherished tooth from a saber tooth tiger that had been caught thousands of years ago that was considered sacred because it had been perfectly white and intact when they had gotten it. Some also found it to have magical power. He thanked it for the averting flood and wished upon it for a flood like that never to happen again. Legend had it that a wish made upon that magical saber tooth as long as it remained in top condition would bring good things to the people and the animals they hunted. However, it was said that all wishes would turn out bad for someone if it was wished upon it was damaged. What the boy didn't notice on the tooth was a small crack. It just happened that that crack would change the lives of our sub-zero heroes. It couldn't kill them because the damage was very minor but that the saber was not perfect anymore. It caused a change in time and appearance for the odd herd that was settled that night, one that could affect them permanently.

This is my first chapter and first story I've submitted. Hope everything looks ok. Enjoy and review. lol


	2. Meeting the Folks

All characters from the Ice Age series are property of 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. All other characters belong to me.

To the Future in High School

Scrat, Manny, Sid, Diego, Eddie, Ellie and Crash woke up on some strange sort of hard, rough, packed-in land. They stared at each other, too stunned to say anything. The only one happy was Scrat down the road of them when he saw his acorn in his hand but his joy vanished when he tried to bite it and felt deep pain in his teeth. The rest of the group that came from the ice age couldn't see him, he was out of their view. They looked at each other in disbelief. Ellie was wearing jeans and a white tee-shirt. She had long eyelashes and orange hair. Crash and Eddie looked about 12 and were wearing 2 shirts with skulls and some writing. They both had black hair and matching naughty grins. Diego was thin and muscular with a yellow tank-top and shorts. He had orangish-brown hair. Manny and Sid were both chubby but Sid was wearing a pink shirt that said "Kick me!" and some blue jeans. He had black hair as well as buck teeth and pasty skin. On the other hand, Manny had a shirt with a mammoth on it and had dark brown hair. All of them were Caucasian except for Diego and Ellie who had slightly darker skin. Nearby, Scrat had characteristics like brown, wavy hair and a goofy face. He wore a shirt with a nut on it and tan trousers. Down the road, after getting good look at each other Ellie, Manny, Diego, Sid, Crash, and Eddie stared at each other again, this time, mouths open in astonishment.

"Wow!" Ellie finally managed. Her voice sounded a lot younger.

"What happened to us?" the brothers asked, hugging each other in shock, their voices changed to match their age.

"Whoa, everybody calm down!" came Diego's teen voice. "Whatever happened to us, there's bound to be a way out.

The brothers screamed as a car passed them, hugging each other tighter.

"What is that?" asked Sid, mouth almost too stiff to speak. Then all at once, what it was and all of the knowledge they should know as humans hit them.

"It's called a car." Manny said softly.

"I just remembered my address." said Sid, almost fainting. Ellie looked at the ground, overwhelmed.

"Ok, now that we're like this we'll either have to live like this or try to get back." came Diego's voice. Remarkably, he seemed to be keeping his cool. "First, where do you all live?"

"I think I live over there." said Manny, pointing to a slightly small blue house across the street. A purple Suzuki was parked in front of it.

"This is my house." said Ellie gesturing to a brown 2-story a few houses down with a good sized yard and several trees. The brothers also pointed.

"I think I live here." said Sid, pointing to a run-down, large house. It had some little kid things in front. Diego was gazing at a high class home with a rugged jeep and the stuffed face of a grizzly bear and lion on the front porch. A man with a western hat was sitting there on a lawn chair, smoking.

"Ok, we'll all need to split up and deal with this the best we can." Diego said. "We need to get to know our families first. Then we can look for a way out."

"What if there is no way out?" said the once possums, clinging to each other.

"There must be." said Ellie. Manny shot her a worried look. Manny looked at the ground, thinking for a moment. Then he spoke. "Ok, everyone do what Diego says. We'll meet here as soon as each of us gets more information." The rest nodded and headed to their homes. Ellie and Manny hugged each other before saying goodbye.

Sid came in the door. Suddenly, a tiny voice greeted him. "Pet Mr. Toady." Sid flinched.

"Are your parents home?"

"No, why did you forget again, I'm babysitting you and Clea." said a heavy toned, muscular, boy said, coming forth.

"And you are?"

"Your big brother, Dave! Get in your room before I sock ya!" Sid ran to his room and slammed the door behind him before his brother could attack him.

Manny got to his home next. He was already alienated by the Suzuki more than other cars as he entered his house. He entered the house and heard a scream. "Aaahhh! I broke a nail!" a girl shouted. Two others, one wearing very fashionable clothes and the other wearing a stained skirt and a blotchy sweater came to help her. He tried to head for his room but accidentally went into what he figured to be one of his sisters' rooms by mistake because posters and pink covered the walls.

"Get out of my room!" a girl slammed the door in his face. He found the right room quickly, feeling very agitated.

When Ellie came in her home, she saw a blond-haired slender woman. "Tell your bothers to come in now! I told you to keep them out of the trees!" she yelled. The brothers were climbing some of the many trees in their yard like they loved to do as possums.

"Ok." She rushed out and got her brothers in. The brothers started to play video games. To Ellie's relief, things weren't too bad and her mom let everyone play. She was even able to join in with them, even though the game they were playing was something about wrestling, something neither her nor her brothers had ever seen humans do. The brothers started making sick jokes about it but Ellie remained calm and laughed with them.

Scrat came to the same house he lived at by mistake. It had a station wagon in front, a small yard, and a few walnut trees in the front and back. He tried to climb up the shortest walnut tree but couldn't. He fell down, palming almost bleeding, and tried to shake the tree, all the time making desperate squeaks in his new human voice.

"Honey, come in, it's dinner time!" called a woman. Delighted, Scrat rushed in. To his horror, all he found on the plate was meat, peas, and broccoli. He screamed.

"Come on, we know you can't like just nuts. What do you say?" she said, pushing him the plate. He turned away, making a stop signal with his hand.

"Emily, you know Scrat can't talk as smart as he is. Why don't you just make him eat his dinner and not ask for a reply." said a man entering the room, Scrat figured out to be his father. His mother pointed to the plate and gave him a stern look. He was able to force himself to eat the peas and broccoli but not the meat.

"Don't forget to do your algebra son." said his father after dinner. He was given some paper with confusing symbols. After staring at them a second, he realized what they meant now that he was a human and got to work, planning on begging for an acorn afterwards.

Diego came in his house last. Things hadn't looked too good when he heard a scream from Manny's house and heard Sid's brother shout at him. He had also seen some idiot try to go up a tree without a clue about climbing but didn't know who it was yet. He went onto the porch. Cowboy music was playing and his father was smoking. He had a western accent and wore boots and a cowboy hat along with other western style clothes. The stuffed predators on the porch reminded him of how humans killed sabers. He didn't like this at all.

"Make sure you tend to them rabbits an' eat your fish an' veggies." the man said. Diego went in without a word. He saw pictures of his father holding dead carnivores he shot, stuffed lions and wolves, and trophies everywhere. _Why doesn't he hunt deer? Why can't he just live with predators? _he thought Just then he bumped into a sign that said, "Rid the Earth of predators. They're no good to anyone. If you see one, shoot it!" He sighed, thinking and headed further into the house to explore it. He entered the living room and saw a huge enclosure filled with what looked like over 100 rabbits. He saw some barbecued fish and lettuce on the table waiting for him. He ate the fish but gave the lettuce to the rabbits that eagerly nibbled it away. He dropped some food in their enclosure and searched for a computer to research the ice age on.

Manny was in his room. He realized that every species of animal in his herd but the possums were extinct. He sighed and got on a computer in his room. It had some pink graffiti written on it. Besides the stuff on his computer, his room was the only place without some evidence of his sisters. The rest of the house was mostly pink. Posters and magazines were stacked in piles everywhere. Still, not all of it was girlish, there were some brown walls and furniture and normal household items around too. He wondered where his parents were. Then the answer came to him. His mother and father were on a cruise that they would be on for the rest of the week. Thinking harder, he somehow knew that his parents were fairly stern but allowed a lot of girlish stuff around the house because he had 4 sisters. Also, they were gone, so his siblings must be partying. He began a web search and tried to ignore what was his sisters were up to.

That night, Sid gave Ellie a call.

"Hello." Ellie answered the phone.

"I don't know what to do. My brother's gonna kill me for losing his baseball cards and my sister won't stop talking to me about her frog. I tried calling Manny and Diego but every time I call Manny's house a get a girl and when I call Diego I get a crazy man with a weird accent. You gotta help me!"

"Oh, those might be their relatives. Did you get the right numbers?"

"I think, wait, it's not in the phone thingy. The numbers just kinda came to me like everything else."

"Well, I haven't gotten a call from anyone. We can meet each other tomorrow in school."

"School?"

"You know, we're kids now. The place where we learn."

"Oh, right, gotcha." Sid's brother stormed into the room. "Oh my brother's gonna get me! Bye!" Sid hung up the phone fast. Ellie wanted to go over to Manny's or call him to see what was going on but it was already 8 o'clock. Her mother said it was too late to call or visit since it was a school night plus her brothers needed to be watched. She didn't even have a phone in her room.

Meanwhile Manny had researched the ice age and humans. He had found various things about early Native Americans and found some things on time machines but the websites labeled it as impossible to travel through time. Also, having lived 20,000 years ago, there was a complete lack of information, only scientific theories about the time, the earliest records of magic were only human records set thousands of years after his lifetime. He wasn't sure who or what caused this to happen to his herd. He felt like he knew more about ice age animals than the experts on the internet, some of the things they said were even wrong because they had not been there like he had. Diego had done some research as well. He looked up a more scientific explanation on the computer but also came up with no results.

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	3. School, Hours 1 through 4

All characters from the Ice Age series are property of 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. All other characters belong to me.

To the Future in High School

The next morning, everyone struggled to get ready for school. They had to figure out what exactly to do to prepare for school, sometimes they realized it on their own, sometimes they ended up asking someone in the house which led to extreme embarrassment or awkwardness. Manny, Ellie, and Diego had met at the sidewalk to wait for Sid only someone strange was among them. Ellie's brothers went to middle school so they were going to school a little later. The strange one nearby tried to climb a neighbor's tree and fell. He tried again, hyperventilating and making urgent squeaks as he continued in determination.

"Who is that?" Ellie asked the others, pointing.

Diego lightened up a bit. "That's the same guy I saw yesterday while everyone was going to their houses. I think he's a nutcase."

Manny narrowed his eyes. "Could that be the squirrel guy we knew?"

"Certainly looks like it. If you're right, that would be Scrat." said Ellie gazing over hopefully.

"Hi guys, sorry I'm late. My sister kind of-"Sid paused when he saw everyone staring.

"Is that the guy you guys think is even nuttier than me?"

"No, but close." replied Manny. "We'd better get moving." Sid wanted to go to Scrat but the rest turned away. He followed his friends after pausing to look at Scrat, in a waddle gate he'd even kept as a human when he stopped procrastinating. They stopped when they entered school grounds. They exchanged schedules to see what classes they had together.

Diego read first. "I have Painting 1, Weights, 10th Grade Algebra, Honors Biology, 9th Grade Social Studies, English B, and" he narrowed his eyes "Spanish."

"Wow, that's a lot. I have Study Skills, Special Ed English, Earth Science, Pre-Algebra, Basic Drawing, Speech, and 9th Grade Social Studies." Sid said quickly as if he knew it by heart and grinned. Everyone stared at him.

"Uh, I have Webpage Design, 9th Grade Science, Pre-Algebra, Creative writing, 9th Grade Social Studies, English B, and Study Skills?" Manny questioned his last class.

"Ooh, that means you have Social Studies with Diego." said Ellie, grinning. I have Mythology, 9th Grade Science, Physical Fitness 1, 9th Grade Social Studies, Basic Drawing, English B, and Pre-Algebra. I have science with you Manny." He smiled even though it was only one class. The four of them entered the school. They saw room numbers, lockers, and most noticeable other teenagers. Some girls were hanging around laughing about a picture of a boy, each dressed in flip-flops, sleeveless tops, and short shorts or blue jeans. Two boys were chasing each other for no apparent reason other than one had stolen the other's baseball cap.

"Wow, you'd really wanna know what they're doing." said Ellie. The rest walked in silence until Sid came up to one of the girls and tried to flirt. The girl screamed and ran away.

"If there's anything you know, never, ever do that!" said Diego, turning to Sid sharply. He gave Sid a written list of the rules and consequences. Sid started to read them loud so everyone in the hallway heard him. Diego came and socked him.

"Hey!" said Sid still reading, "That's against the rules!"

"Right now it sure isn't." replied Manny, grabbing it from him. Ellie watched but didn't take action. She was used to these kind of fights between them though if anything got any worse, she'd probably stand up for Sid. The 5 minute bell rang.

"Ok, now's the time to split up. We need to see if we can find out anything about our situations from our classes. Our goal is to find a way out of here, not get good grades. Everybody hear that?" The rest of the bunch nodded.

Sid smiled and gazed over longingly at a candy machine even though he had no money. He started to dash to it but Manny stopped him.

"Sid! That means you can not get A's in class. It doesn't mean act like yourself!" whispered Manny, irritated.

"Got it." Everyone walked off to their classes.

Just then Scrat burst in the school doors, looking a little bruised and cut but finally with a walnut from the tree he climbed. He cracked it open in the hall with a nutcracker while everyone watched. Then he ate it and hurried to class.

When Ellie got to Mythology, she knew it might lend her some possible information to help her friends. She copied down notes the whole hour on the teacher's boring lecture, just smiling back at anyone staring at her who was awake until the teacher asked her a question.

"Ellie, name one of the animals the ancient Egyptians worshipped."

She looked down in her notes for a second but didn't find an answer.

"The possum." she guessed confidently.

"I'm sorry but I don't know of any possums that lived along the Nile River." the teacher said in a boring, monotone voice. The class laughed but the teacher just kept on with his lecture. She continued her notes as the class went on. The teacher assigned the kids no homework for that day.

Meanwhile, Diego was in his painting class. He got horrified when a kid spilled paint on him. He wiped it on his painting smock, deciding to resist using the sink. Most of the kids were painting flowers as their assignment went. Diego followed the instructions and painted some yellow tulips though he didn't feel he was getting anywhere closer to his friends' dilemma in getting them back to the ice age. Then he painted a lion in his spare time before class ended.

Manny was in the Webpage Design class. He had little idea what all the symbols and text meant for making a webpage. Every time he loaded his webpage there was an error. By the handout he got, he was already earning a C- in the class. If this didn't get him any closer to finding out what happened to them, he decided to still try to do it. After all, the previous night, he had been scanning dozens of webpages. Maybe with luck he could make one if he tried hard enough.

In Study Skills, Sid was given an extra assignment since he claimed he had no homework. Soon he got bored and passed out, snoring. A girl behind him giggled and wrote "Kiss me!" on his neck. Soon the teacher noticed the snoring and tapped her fist hard on the table.

"You have a lot of work to do young man."

Sid woke up instantly and tried to come up with an excuse. "I was just-uh-looking deeply at my paper, you know how much better grades you get when you read hard. Everyone tells you that your grades will turn from F's to A's"

"Smart comments like that do not belong in this classroom. Now do your work like I told you." The teacher putting her finger down sternly at the paper and gave Sid a look. Lip trembling, Sid forced himself to stare down at the paper and finish his work.

Scrat had aerobics first hour. The class was taking turns running. When Scrat got his turn to run, he thought he saw an acorn at the other end of the track. He ran faster than any other kid and made it back with what he thought was an acorn in half the time it took the other kids. He bit down hard on it but as it turned out, it was a littered mini nail polish bottle. He almost broke his teeth again. When he stood there with a hand on his mouth, everyone stared. Luckily the class went in before anyone could ask. However, the next thing the teacher had planned was step aerobics. He made a squeak every time he made a move to the aerobics music. The teacher looked his way but didn't say anything. The other kids and the teacher seemed to already be informed that Scrat was allowed to make noise because he couldn't talk. Still, the kids took an interest and two boys started copying him. Unfortunately, that got them in trouble.

Then came second hour. For Diego, this was no problem, after he learned how to use the equipment in Weights, he used it with ease. The only problem was the teacher caught him for not changing into his gym clothes. The teacher gave him a warning. He decided to bring clothes the next day but he wasn't too sure how humans were supposed to behave while changing in the dressing room.

Manny got to his science class early. He gained great interest when he opened his book to a part on electricity. Soon Ellie was beside him.

"Nice to see you again." They smiled at each other. "What is this on?"

"How electricity is produced. We should study it this period. If we can't figure it out, we can show it to Diego later. They read it until the teacher passed out a sheet on magnetism. After reading through the entire electricity chapter Manny and Ellie started on the magnetism worksheet. They thoroughly read the section that went along with it. Then the teacher handed out more worksheets on magnetism that basically repeated the same thing as their last one. Ellie and Manny decided to do them later and look more at the book. Then they turned back to the electricity chapter.

"Hey, I have an idea!" In electrical stuff they use magnets to make the electricity right? Maybe we can invent something like that and get back that way." Ellie exclaimed.

"I don't know. It seems pretty complex." Manny said, pointing to a diagram of a simple motor.

"Oh, come on! That blue light seemed pretty electric. Don't you think? And the light was coming toward us like a magnet."

"I don't think so. The only things it says here that magnets are attracted to are certain types of metal." said Manny pointing.

"Oh, maybe it's a kind of force that got us here then." They looked up force but also found the definition of work in the textbook. The definition for work was when something that moves an object a distance. Force was even simpler. It was defined as a push or a pull. Manny's eyes narrowed. This was definitely not what they were looking for. Then they hit pay dirt, a chapter on electromagnetic radiation.

"It says it is energy that travels at 300,000 kilometers per hour. That sounds fast doesn't it?"

"Yeah. I'll make sure I research it more when I get home." By now most of the kids were finished with all the handouts. Some started to socialize and the teacher didn't seem to mind. He just sat at his desk and graded papers. A girl came up to them. "Hi, what are you two doing?"

"Just studying." replied Manny.

She looked at all the sheets he had not done. "If it takes you that long, maybe that's why you have Study Skills 7th hour."

"No, my parents just wanted me there." he guessed.

"I thought it was because he had an anger problem." said a small but daring boy at the table next to them. Manny glared at him. Ellie stepped in before Manny could get mad and prove what the boy said.

"No, we're just kinda slow readers. We like to study a lot so we get good grades in class." Ellie said.

"That's a first." replied the girl. By the way, what are your names?"

"I'm Ellie and this is Manny." said Ellie. He waved at the girl subtly.

"My name's Jessica."

"Nice to meet you." Ellie greeted her, giving her a hand shake.

"Nice to meet you too. Sorry, but I just thought you two were some of those geeks that hang around and do nothing but homework."

"We're not." assured Manny. Just then the bell rang and the teacher handed out yet another sheet on the same section.

"See you later Ellie!" Jessica waved. Ellie waved back. Manny and Ellie packed up without a word, exchanging glances, and headed to their next classes. They realized they had a lot of science homework to do that night.

When Sid got to his second hour class, Special Ed English, he was surprised. He saw a bunch of kids from other countries speaking alien languages and others that were barely able to talk and had strange behavior. He went up to 2 Mexican girls gossiping about something in Spanish. One said uno. Sid misinterpreted it.

"Uno, I know what?" They stared at him for a second. Then one counted up to ten in Spanish using her fingers. She held up one finger and said "uno" at last.

"Ooo, no I don't understand you." Sid said.

The girls glanced at him, then continued talking.

Sid walked up to a kid who was acting strangely.

"Hi." he said.

The kid smiled weakly, made a grunt, and wrote "Hello" in response on a piece of paper.

"Hmm, are you a stone age person?" The kid gave Sid an angry look and shook his whole body no. Just then the teacher gave in the room. "Today's lesson will be on the proper way to use English." she said happily.

"Ain't ain't a word!" Sid shouted out.

"Good job!" said the teacher clapping. She handed everyone easy sheets on correcting grammar and English pronunciation. She gave Sid a special sheet on social skills. Everyone finished the sheets pretty fast. The kids passed up their sheets. The teacher told the kids to write down words and sentences they knew while she graded papers. Sid took this time to write a fairly complex, long page on how the sloth was a special animal and how these qualities applied to him. The teacher handed Sid back his social skills paper. Many things were circled and an E was written at the top. His other two papers came out as a C and B-. The teacher collected what everybody wrote while she had been grading papers. She came up to Sid with his paper.

"Can you please give me more factual evidence next time you write on the sloth. I don't think that you compare yourself to one according to their natural habits well. I would suggest that you do some research next time first."

Sid was shocked. He thought he knew very well about sloths and sadly to say also believed he had all the lovable qualities he had listed about sloths.

"What do you mean? We're fast movers, we do things with precision, we speak with a lateral lisp and we're smarter than most other animals."

"Sloth?" said a Norwegian boy. "Moves slow, can't walk, slow but no in water." he said slowly with an accent. He was obviously just learning English.

The teacher's expression hardened. "When you say "we're", what are you referring to?"

"Oh, you know, how I'm a sloth and I-" Sid covered his mouth.

"Sloth?" the Norwegian boy repeated.

"I'm sorry but the sloth is not a kind of person. It is actually an animal." the teacher corrected.

"Oh, now what I meant was I'm a sloth, she's a sloth (pointed to one of the Mexican girls, he's a sloth (pointed to a mute boy in the far corner), they're sloths (pointed to the kid who acted strange, two Japanese kids, and the Norwegian boy), we're all sloths!"

Most of the class burst out in laughter, obviously misinterpreting Sid's error.

The teacher made him look up sloth in the dictionary and do a web search on them for the rest of class. Sid was not happy with what he found written about modern day sloths. He was about to declare all of it fake but the bell rang and the teacher and kids left the room before he could open his mouth.

Scrat had a cooking class that hour. Everyone was making cakes and sandwiches. Scrat tried to make a acorn shaped cake but didn't have a clue how. Eventually he spotted a nut shape in somebody's cake and dug into it, getting frosting everywhere and all over several people's clothes including his own. He was given a note home requesting a behavior conference with his parents or to serve a detention. He was sent to the dressing room to change into his aerobics clothes but luckily, no one was in there so there was no problem.

Manny had Pre-Algebra next. He was almost completely lost when he looked at his practice sheet. Fortunately for him, the teacher cared. The teacher saw Manny struggling and came over to help.

"2+3/5x20. First take away 2 from both sides. Then multiply 18 by the reciprocal of 3/5." Manny was still lost. "Um, what does reciprocal mean?"

"The opposite of the number, like the reciprocal of 2 is -2, and the reciprocal of ¾ is 4/3."

"So the numbers are reversed sort of?"

"Yes. So you multiply both sides by the reciprocal of 5/3."

After a few problems like that Manny caught on and he found the graphing exercise quite easy. He was feeling quite confident until the teacher handed everyone a quiz. The teacher said not to copy so he didn't look at anyone else's paper. There were some things he knew how to do and some things he didn't. He was able to figure out most of the things like problems with negative numbers because he had known about them from the ice age and stuff that he had already learned that hour but some of the squared numbers puzzled him. He handed the paper in and estimated that he got a B. Mr. Jones assigned a few pages in the book for everyone to do that night.

Diego also had math that hour, only on a 10th grade level. When he was given pages to do in the book, he looked everything up for a while and was able to understand most of what he was doing after that. He easily calculated numbers when multiply and dividing. Needing to calculate distance and speed when he hunted as a saber seemed to give him the ability to work with numbers well. At last the instructor handed out a sheet on some formulas and math concepts. Diego was pretty sure of himself that he would know hoe to do it.

Ellie had Personal Fitness 1 next. She followed the kids into the dressing room. Luckily she found a pair of gym clothes in what she remembered as her locker. When class started the teacher announced that they would be playing volleyball. She did very well at volleyball once she got the hang of hitting the ball. She also beat everyone in class at the sit and reach test.

For Earth Science, the teacher had the kids watch a boring video and told them to take notes. Sid started to fall asleep only 5 minutes after the video started. However, a tough girl dressed in black with pigtails who couldn't take snoring was sitting next to him. She whacked him every time he fell asleep. He tried to cover his sleepiness up by starting to talk when he was forced awake but the girl was all business. She flicked him on the head whenever he tried to talk and pointed his head at the television screen when she got really frustrated. After a while it worked but, after watching the movie for the rest of the hour, his head felt numb and his vision was blurry from the mental strain so he headed to the bathroom to wash his face only it made him late for his next class. He also forgot to pick up a worksheet that for a section in his textbook when he left.

Meanwhile, Scrat was sitting in the office with his detention slip. The principal came up to him and took him to his back office.

"Any type of food fighting is not tolerated here. That includes any type of throwing, squirting, spitting, spilling, or improper eating behaviors. For your incident, you will be taken out of the cooking class and switched in 9th Grade Science in place of it. Since you are in the Special Ed program, you may be given a detention or parent conference. I am not asking for a reply from you. I just expect that you return with that sheet signed and ready to hand in tomorrow."

Scrat nodded. He had kept his squirrelly sounds to a minimum while the principal was talking.

"You may be excused." Scrat nodded and left. He had been waiting a whole hour and a half in the office so he was given a pass to go to his 4th hour class because he had just sat in a chair until the principal finally went out of his office and found him.

Diego was in Honors Biology class. He was given a lecture from the teacher for the whole hour so he took time to look through his textbook. Besides, everyone else was daydreaming or half asleep. Only a few kids maintained focus on the instructor. He started by looking up definitions in the book's index. He quickly got a feel for the basic things like genotypes and dominant/recessive genes. He turned to the page numbers for things he didn't understand. After looking at this textbook as well as his math one he picked up on how complex humans were in the modern age. There were theories and symbols for formulas no animal would have dreamed of coming up with. However, being human, he somehow remembered some things about biology out of the blue. It reminded him of how the rest of the herd and him had suddenly picked up what all the human things were around them when they first came out of the ice age. He thought and continued to search. Then the bell rang for lunch.

Ellie had 9th Grade Social Studies 4th hour. The teacher was assigning everyone projects on the American Revolution. She was teamed up with a boy named Adam. She was going to be researching the Boston Tea Party and King George the Third with him.

The teacher gave the signal for everyone to start working. She was looking at a picture of some colonists dumping tea into the ocean in her book when Adam walked over.

"Hi."

"Hi!" she smiled back.

"I know but maybe we could get some pictures off the internet for the project and caption them. We could also type some pages on our two topics and how they are similar. What do you think?"

"Should we split the jobs o do them together. Cause' I don't think I understand the whole dumping tea into the ocean thing."

"Together I guess. Maybe I could start typing while you read about it in your book."

"Good idea!" she exclaimed. She began to read on it. As she read about her topics she wondered why the person called King George the Third would be so obsessed with ruling a continent so far away. Ellie read about how The Boston Tea Party was to rebel against rising taxes and about how King George was so uncaring for the colonists, especially when all they wanted to do was have their own country. Then she saw a sentence that stunned her in the next section about the settling of the west. 'The colonists' tempers rose when the Native Americans fought to keep their land when Westward expansion began.' She read on, fascinated. 'This was the start of many battles and conflicts between Americans and Indians that were based upon how the settlers thought of themselves as superior to all other races.' She read on about it and then closed the book, shocked that anyone could be so judgmental. Ice age animals sure weren't like that. Ellie suddenly saw King George's point.

She came up to Adam who had already finished a few paragraphs. "Hey, I think King George was right about ruling the colonists."

Adam gave her a blank stare. "America was founded because the king lost power of the colonists. Besides, I don't think the teacher wants us to give our opinion in our project."

Ellie nodded and took a seat at the computer next to him. Because she liked her topics so much, she typed with lightning speed and had finished almost as much as Adam by the end of the hour.

At the same time, Manny had Creative Writing. The teacher was very carefree and let the class write whatever stories they wanted for the whole hour as long as they were appropriate. Manny didn't know what he could write without saying something about the ice age or saying things about his awkward household with his 4 sisters. Finally he settled his mind of something. He wrote about problems he thought were in the typical life of a teenager. He wasn't sure it came out right but handed it to the teacher anyway when class ended.

Sid was late for Pre-Algebra. He had the same teacher as Manny, Mr. Jones. The teacher joked when Sid came in, 5 minutes late, face dripping with water from the restroom.

"So those kids must have been really after you." Mr. Jones teased. "Go ahead and sit down right there." He pointed to a seat near the front of the class. Sid sat down and Mr. Jones pasted out a math equation paper. Sid's vision went from good to blurry again right after he saw the problems. He had no idea whatsoever how to do them and the movie from last hour hadn't helped. Just then, he felt something damp on his neck. A few girls were laughing behind him. Sid recovered fast.

"Hey, if you're gonna kiss me, try my lips." he said in a wide-faced grin. The girls laughed again.

"Try kissing this." One of them showed him a filthy tissue covered in lipstick and dirt.

"No, I actually prefer French kissing." said Sid.

"You can French kiss our tissue. All the girls love it when a boy does that." the leader said, picking up on Sid's lack of common sense.

Sid tried it and ended up spitting it out across the room. The girls laughed and Sid looked back at them, completely oblivious to their joke. He tried to do the equations again but still didn't know how.

"Mr. Teacher, I need help!" Mr. Jones came to him.

"What's wrong."

"What does this mean?" he pointed to a review question that a kid in 3rd Grade should know that said "10/?0" Mr. Jones looked surprised that Sid didn't know it how to do it. He gestured to the girls that had been teasing him earlier behind him. "Why don't you ask these fine ladies for help." The girls agreed to help but poor Sid was going to be even more stuck getting help from them.

"10 divided by one equals what? One, two, three, a million?" they teased.

"Uno?" Sid guessed.

"Yes, just keep writing answers like that and you should get an A."

"Words also count." another whispered.

Sid believed them and wrote things like uno, zero, sloth, love machine, a, b, c, math champion, and random phrases and numbers. When the quiz got passed out Sid questioned if he should do the same thing on it.

"Oh, sure. We do it all the time. A few other naughty kids nodded in agreement and snickered. Sid did as he was told and handed in his quiz and passed it in fairly pleased. Sid vowed to do the pages in the textbook for homework the same way. Doing what the girls said was fun and easy.

Scrat had English that hour. The teacher gave him a handout and told him to write about something other than nuts. He thought for a moment. Then he wrote about all the perils he had been faced with as a saber-toothed squirrel, accidentally mentioning nuts here and there. Then his last paragraph was about how badly he wanted a nut as a prize for his work. The teacher collected the papers and lectured for the rest of the hour. Scrat took the time to draw a perfect picture of an acorn on a notebook piece of paper before lunch started.

This one was really silly. Let me know what you thnk of it.


	4. Lunch

All characters from the Ice Age series are property of 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. All other characters belong to me.

To the Future in High School

All of the ice age group had the same lunch, including Scrat. Sid had forgotten his lunch money. They met outside the lunch line. No one had brought a packed lunch. They lined up but soon found a few problems. Manny said that they would discuss their first 4 periods after they sat down.

"All they're serving today is chicken pot pie, a hamburger, fries, and milk." Manny and Ellie eyed each other. The salad stand was closed and the no other line served fruit or vegetables.

"We can't eat meat can we?" Ellie asked Manny.

"I think you can eat it. We're humans now." Diego said.

"But you still won't eat anything but meat." Sid commented.

"So?"

"How can you tell the mammoths to eat meat if you don't eat your veggies?"

A curious boy turned to them out of curiosity in line of what Sid had just said.

Diego knocked him. "We can not mention things like that."

"Ok, sheesh." Sid answered.

Everyone got the same lunch and went to the cashier. Manny had brought coins, Ellie had brought a five dollar bill, and Diego had exactly $2.60 with him. Ellie was up first. She paid for her lunch but got extra change. She passed Sid the extra money she got back so he could still get lunch. He headed to the back of the lunch line while the rest of them paid. Manny was next. He didn't know what the coins meant exactly but it was all he could find in his bedroom drawer. He eyed the coins and handed some of them to the cashier.

"I'm sorry but can you give me 40 more cents." The cashier said. Manny looked at the coins, he didn't know how much to give. The cashier gave him a look. Luckily Diego was behind him.

"Give the money to her and let her sort it." He whispered.

Manny did as he was told. Diego handed in his money and had no problem.

They got to the table where Ellie was sitting alone. She was eating the hamburger bun and the vegetables in the chicken pot pie but nothing else. She used the utensils properly to eat her food but a few kids at another table were staring because of the meat from the hamburger and pieces of the chicken pot pie sitting messily on her lunch tray.

"Hi, how are you two?" she greeted. Manny gave her a look but didn't say anything about how weird her tray looked.

"Good… So how were your classes?"

"Pretty good, I researched electricity with Manny in science. We'll show you this lunch period." she said to Diego. "I also have a strange teacher who doesn't believe that possums were worshiped in Africa."

"Do possums live in Africa?" Manny asked.

"No, but they should be respected everywhere, you know?" Everyone went silent for a second. "I also got a social studies project on King George the Third and The Boston Tea Party. I think it's about how America became a country." They nodded.

"I have a lot of things I've found on genes and math equations in my classes. Maybe Manny and I could take a look at them after school."

"Anything else?"

"No, I just have a boring painting class and a class where you work with exercise equipment." Ellie glanced at him like it might be an idea for getting them back.

"I don't think we could things like that to get us back." Diego said. "What about you Manny?"

"I learned some math and I'm in a webpage design class I don't know much about. I also have Creative Writing but I don't think it has much to offer." Just then Sid came with is lunch. He had heard them and added his thoughts on his classes. He was already eating when he walked up to them.

"Mmm, I have three really mean teachers that make you watch boring videos, make you do extra work, and know nothing about sloths." Sid said eating.

"That's what school's about Sid. Why would you mention sloths to them?" Manny said, irritated and monotonously.

Manny tried to take a bite of his burger and spit it out. Then he tried a fry and swallowed but made a face.

"Humans are omnivores, sorry to say." Diego said lightly to Manny.

All of them sipped at their milk which they were all ok with. Diego was able to eat most of his lunch.

As they continued eating, they saw the person that knew as Scrat a few tables down with a tray full of nuts.

"How'd he get all that?" Sid asked.

"Looks like he went outside." Diego said, pointing to Scrat. Dirt and leaves covered his hair. His skin was red and irritated all over from climbing whatever tree he went up. Just then, Scrat pulled out a math textbook. He started doing some random pages in the book, getting some blood all over it as he flipped through. Many kids stared but said nothing.

Sid suddenly went green from what he was eating. "Gotta get to the bathroom." he said running in Scrat's direction which was the way to the restroom. Sid didn't make it and poor Scrat got covered in Sid's already eaten lunch. Scrat squeaked and still tried to eat a partly digested, food covered nut. The whole lunchroom laughed and Sid just stood there, embarrassed and wide eyed.

Diego snickered but Manny just stared.

"Maybe Scrat'll give Sid payback." Ellie suggested. She was right. When Scrat tasted his ruined nut dish and saw everyone make fun of him, he attacked Sid and they both looked equally bad after fighting. Weirdly no teachers had been watching. Sid ended up running out with Scrat chasing him, making a karate yell.

This time, everyone laughed including Manny was laughinh.

Then Ellie realized something and stopped. "You know, we've been so interested in getting out that we haven't mentioned our families yet."

Manny and Diego calmed themselves down and got ready to talk.

"I live in a house with hundred rabbits." Diego said lightheartedly. Then his tone got more serious. "My father is a western and hates predators. All I can eat is fish. There's stuffed lions and wolves all over the house. I don't think we're getting along too well either."

"I live in a house with a lot of trees. My brothers and I are not allowed to climb them but we can play video games. Our mom's pretty strict though." She seemed fairly happy with her situation. "I also heard from Sid last night that he has a little sister with a pet frog and a big brother. I don't think his brother and him get along very well though."

"What about you Manny?" Diego asked.

"You really wanna hear it?"

"Sure." Ellie said.

"Ok, I live in a house with 4 sisters. Um, they're into a lot of teen things."

"Like what?" Ellie interrupted.

"Uh, fashion, boys, nail polish. My parents are also on a cruise, I think so they have the run of the house."

"Oh." Ellie said, seeming interested.

Diego changed the subject. "Did any of you find anything on the ice age last night?" Diego asked.

"I looked up humans in the ice age and time machines. I didn't find much of anything that could help us. The web pages were also wrong about time machines. They said it was impossible to travel through time which we know is not true." Manny responded.

This sparked an idea for Diego. "Maybe it's a force that got us here, not a time machine."

"Well Manny and I looked up forces and stuff but we found nothing. Maybe the chapter on electromagnetic radiation would be good to look at though." Ellie said.

Diego looked at Ellie a little strangely. He didn't think that she was reading up on the kind of force he was talking about "I looked up explanations of scientific laws and stuff but didn't get any information either."

"What about you Ellie?" Manny asked.

"I got stuck babysitting my brothers but I can look for stuff like that tonight."

"Good." Diego said. "Um, maybe I can take a look at what you guys have from your classes now."

"The bell's about to ring." Manny reminded them.

"Ok, I'll talk to you after school then." Diego said. The three parted and headed to their next classes just as the bell rang.

What will happen after Scrat and Sid's fight? Find out in the next chapter.


	5. Hours 5 through 7

All characters from the Ice Age series are property of 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. All other characters belong to me.

To the Future in High School

Note: This chapter is not complete yet.

Ellie arrived at her Basic Drawing class after lunch. The bell had just rung and a dirty, awful smelling Sid arrived after his confrontation with Scrat at lunch. He sat down next to Ellie who scooted away a little despite her high tolerance of people that are different.

"Hey, what's up?" said Sid smiling, acting like nothing was amiss.

"You uh-" Ellie stopped and pointed to all the kids staring at him with their mouths wide open, some covering their noses.

Sid picked up her point even though he didn't have the best odor as a sloth either. Sid got up and was about to walk out of the classroom to go to the office for new clothes when he collided with the teacher at the doorway. The teacher was also very strict unfortunately for Sid.

The teacher looked enraged now that some of the gunk of Sid was on him. "Pardon me, sir, but what do you think you were doing coming to class in soiled clothes?" he pointed a thick finger into Sid's chest so hard it threatened to push him backward. The teacher didn't seem to care that he was touching Sid's shirt again.

Sid was horrified and nervous. "I-I was just heading to the office to get new clothes." Sid still had the teacher's finger pushing on his chest.

"I don't care. Behavior like that calls for an immediate referral and detention or possibly a 9 day suspension."

"Wait! He was heading to the office to get new clothes, he told me so. He got beaten up by a kid at lunch so badly that he lost his lunch. He only bumped into you because he's still wary from the fight." Ellie clarified

The teacher eyed her, glaring. "And what was the name of the student responsible for this incident?"

"Scrat." Ellie said sounding as if she didn't want to get Scart in trouble.

"Scrat?" the teacher repeated. "Is this a teen prank?"

"No, Scrat is a real student who has Lunch B. He has redish, wavy hair. He was sitting at the table next to my friends table. Ask Manny or Diego.

The teacher was lazy about talking to students and decided to dismiss Sid.

"Fine, go to the office, get home and take a shower, and return to class tomorrow. But just remember, if I find out any of this story is not true, you and your friend over there will be suspended. Do you understand?" Sid gulped and nodded earnestly. Ellie also gave the teacher the ok.

There was a brief period after that when the teacher went to change his clothes. Ellie smiled at everyone staring at her, even those that mocked or teased her about Sid. Then the teacher handed out everyone a strict rubric for a creative drawing assignment. Ellie saw it and thought '_Geez, for an art teacher, Mr. Weiner's really not creative.' _The teacher spent the rest of the hour lecturing on his strict expectations for the students in his class and about the rubric. Ellie passed the time thinking.

Scrat had 9th Grade Social Studies with Diego and Manfred that hour. Diego and Manny had just sat down next to eat other when a hyperventilating Scrat came in with a bagful of the washed nuts from his lunch and sat beside them. The kids already in class stared, shocked. Manny showed a look of disgust at Scrat's still ruined clothes but Diego had something to say to Scrat.

"Hey, first of all, move away from us." Scrat obeyed. "Second, how did you get here?" Diego asked quietly, ignoring Scrat's appearance.

Scrat thought for a second, then mimicked what happened the night that he was taken from the ice age by pointing at the lights on the ceiling, running with his bag of nuts around the classroom like a lunatic, and then turning the lights off leaving out the part where he rammed into a boulder and how his nut disappeared first. Kids stared at Scrat, wide eyed and giggling as he did his dramatization of what looked to them like a kid going crazy.

Manny looked over at Diego. "I think he's trying to answer your question." They watched as Scrat finished and stepped in front on them silently telling them he was done. Then Scrat heard footsteps. Scrat screamed and bolted out the door for a reason only Scrat and possibly the principal he had been in trouble with earlier, Mr. Crinal would understand. Fortunately, the principal didn't see him and it appeared that Mr. Crinal was only having a casual talk with the social studies teacher; he hadn't come to punish or lecture the class. Manny and Diego exchanged glances. Manny and Diego had the same teacher as Ellie, Mrs. Steinberg. She wasted no time assigning the kids partners since she had arrived late to the classroom. Manny and Diego started quietly conversing on their situation when Manny almost jumped when he heard his name.

"Manfred Gollbeck, you will be working with Shino Alm on the struggles between Native Americans and Americans for land and The Declaration of Independence." Manny took one look at his partner and immediatly drew back. The girl he was partners with had sweet eyes that felt like they held meaning, black hair and a worn but beautiful Native American dress. She was also small and looked like she would never hurt a fly. He didn't know what the something of independence was but was sure Shino was Native American. (not stereotyping here) He wondered if she could help his herd, especially with the topics they were researching and her resemblence to the people from the ice age which probably were Native Americans. Manny got out of his thoughts when he heard Diego's name called.

"Diego Clawsten, you will be working alone on the animal skin trade in the 1700's." Diego scoffed, he always seemed to get stuck with something about predators or worse, hunting animals. Soon, they started their work and Manny tried his best to approach Shino.

"Do you wanna try to work- uh." his face tensed with nervousness. He didn't know how to approach girls period, let alone one that was like this, especially without sounding like he liked her because he didn't and already had Ellie.

"What?" said Shino in the quietest, sweet, most innocent voice. Manny backed a step and by the looks of him to Diego felt much worse about this than when he met Ellie.

"I was wondering if you know much about-" Manny stopped again speechless. Diego decided to help since he knew what Manny was getting at. "early Americans." Diego finished for Manny.

"Oh, sure." she said innocently. Quietly, she mapped out what her and Manny would be doing for their project. Fortunately, she had not taken any of this offensively and at last Manny was able to get a grip on being around her and worked the rest of the hour. Diego looked up hunting of animals for his project as well as the uses of the animals poeple killed. What he found disgusted him; it was not anything like how sabers ate prey. He noted that Scrat didn't show up again that hour.


End file.
